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Sunday, 19 September 2010

A few additional bits and pieces

I'm pleased with the progress of this blog so far. It's heading for 700 pageviews and I've had a number of encouraging messages.

I'm really keen to gather all available information about the history not only of the Islanders, but also of our boat-building tradition in the West and of the yacht racing that took place around the Clyde. There was a great deal of interest in the latter, with the races being regularly written up in the Herald and Scotsman and the yachts being featured in postcards such as the above.

Perhaps the tradition of different hull colours facilitated a bit of gambling on the results. It would be fun to know.

In the meantime I've discovered that of the first five boats, numbers 1 and 2, Westra and Cara, opted to have no engines, while Bernera, Stroma and Sanda had Watermotas.

The sailing season started formally on Friday 24 May 1929, but only Westra, Cara and Bernera were ready, so it was decided to postpone the inauguration of the Class. On Saturday 1st June these three went ahead regardless, at the Royal Gourock, as the others were still not ready.

I've also come across a copy of the new Constitution and Rules that were adopted in 1999, so here they are:-

These rules were intended to be sufficiently flexible to encourage the construction of new boats in the Class, while preserving the main things that matter. So far only the indefatigable Martyn has risen to the challenge and the result is his beautiful Shona, engineered and built by Richard Pierce. Richard still has his drawings and calculations, should anyone be interested.

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WHAT THIS BLOG IS ABOUT

This blog was set up to provide an archive of information about the Islanders and the people involved with them and nearly a year on it now contains most of the available material, which I hope is a good historical record. I am now tending to edit existing posts to make them more accurate, rather than writing new ones. I am posting most new material, especially anything that is of interest more generally on www.scottishboating.blogspot.com

www.scottishboating.blogspot.com

My other boating blog contains what I hope is a treasure trove of historical material, tales of excursions at home and abroad, boat design and construction, together with the ongoing general musings that bloggers indulge in, so do visit www.scottishboating.blogspot.com

Welcome from the Editor

I first sailed on a Scottish Islander in the early 1970s and have owned Stroma since 1976. For some years I have been gathering material for a book, which may eventually materialise, but until that happens this blog is available as a place where history can be recorded and information preserved.

I hope that owners and friends of the boats will enjoy these pages and contribute anecdotes, tales of epic voyages, photographs or whatever.

I do hope to publish a book on the Class in due course and if you post anything here I will assume that you consent to my using your material for this purpose.

The Editor

One sunny day on the loch

Communicating with me

If you have material you would like to send to me or if you wish to raise any issue without formally commenting you can do so by emailing me at ewangkennedy@gmail.com. I will not publish anything without your express consent.